Richard
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Posts posted by Richard
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I see, must have all happened whilst I was asleep 😆
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7 hours ago, BearBoy said:
Seems like we had a weird blip yesterday.
Anyone else still having issues today? Seems a bit hit and miss whether I get into the site or diverted to some weird "sponsor" page. Have tried clearing cache etc but it's still intermittently happening (this is across multiple devices and browsers).I haven't noticed anything from my side. I generally check the forum once a day or so for the last week. I'm using Chrome on my laptop
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Axia MD | Natural Sound MD-PS
Released on March 21st 2000, this beautiful series from Axia came in just 3 colours - Green, White and Blue. However, each of the 3 colours has three possible unique designs on the index cards making for a total of 9 variations. The discs were sold individually, in packs of 3, and 5 in 80 minutes only. Like many Axia discs, I really love the attention to detail on these and the high quality materials used throughout.
Green Single Disc
Blue Single Discs
Blue Single Disc - Retail Hanger Version
White Single Discs
5 Pack Mix
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Sun Japan MD | Pure Sound Collection
These discs are probably from around 2000. I know very little about which retail outlets they were sold in, but Sun Japan was founded in 1990 and specialised in the production of paper and other associated stationary products.
The discs are made by Ritek of Taiwan and only appear to have come in these 10 packs which are essentially two 5 disc slim case packs bundled together. The discs are virtually identical to the SunnyTechs (also made by Ritek) from the same period (and also available in these 10 pack bundles).
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13 hours ago, BearBoy said:
Saw a link to this website on the r/minidisc Reddit this morning: https://md543.jimdofree.com/
It's in Chinese (according to Google translate*) but there are some great photos and (Japanese) catalogue scans.
The timeline seems to stop in 2004, so it doesn't have the very last generation of devices, but it's still an interesting place to while away some time 🙂
* Although it translated the caption for 2003 as "Nourishing Goose" so I'm not sure how accurate it is... 🤣
I think I have seen that site before as well - you're right there are some great photos on there and some interesting catalogue downloads
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12 hours ago, BearBoy said:
Another interesting curio, @Richard. Where do you find all these sets?
I like the burgundy colour. Nicer than a lot of the brighter reds most of my coloured MDs came in.
Is there any music on the MD or cassette? Just noticed the tracklisting on the cassette inlay (seem to be pastiches of Beatles songs?).
Yes, well spotted! "All you need is HAM", "Let it Beer"... some bizarre titles on there 😅 Not sure what the Maxell marketing department had been smoking.. Actually there is no music on the MD - I did check. Those inlay cards that come with the cassette appear to be some custom designs, with some transparent sheets that go over the top that you can write the track titles on. I think the tracks they provided are just examples of how to use the titling sheet.. Very odd though!
The MD inlay card / stickers are just from a regular 3rd series Twinkle
This set was in an auction on Yahoo Japan.
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Maxell Japan | Kyoto Factory "Share The Wonder" media set
I'm not 100% sure of the origins of this set, if it was a giveaway to employees, part of the factory tour or something else. However, I was lucky enough to recently acquire this set. There is a second MD only set of 5 discs, but this one features mixed media (MD, Cassette and VHS) all in a beautiful deep Bordeaux red - a unique color, never used in any of the Maxell production series of discs.
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Interesting to see it in action, but it's a bit before my time with MD. Titling on the computer was already the norm when I got into minidisc.
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Daiso MD | Master Series, Series I
Daiso's Master Series I. Available in five color schemes: Blue, Green, Red, Yellow and Purple. Note: the 74min comes in MD slipcase and the 80min without slipcase.
80 Minute Versions
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9 hours ago, BearBoy said:
Here's a quick snap of my new MZ-E720:
Richard's photo posts have inspired me to take some better pictures of my portables so I'll try to get some nicer photos together.
Size wise, it's smaller than my MZ-E520 and MZ-E620 but a fraction larger than an MZ-E909.
That looks great! I've not seen an E720 in the flesh, but with most Sony units I have, I am / was always surprised at how small they actually are in real life - the pictures for some reason always make me think they are bigger than they actually are.
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4 hours ago, BearBoy said:
I like the matching blank in the last picture 👍
Thanks! - That one is from the Maxell Color Club series. Which reminds me, I don't think we have a pictorial of those yet..
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Yes, it's the standard gumstick size. I use the orange Vapex ones that I bought when I was still living in the UK and they work great.
Most of the later Victor units were indeed Japan only.
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22 minutes ago, BearBoy said:
The flashing lights sound like quite a cool feature. Don't suppose they do much for the battery life though 🤔. My new MZ-E720 only has a single light but you can disable this to prolong the battery life.
When a disc is playing regularly, the red light just blinks in a constant, steady flash. I don't think they have a huge impact on battery life - there is a battery save feature, but in my experience most of these Victor player only units have crazy long battery life anyway. Much longer than any of my Sony's. It usually takes me a good few weeks before I need to charge a battery on these. Admittedly I don't listen to them every day...
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6 minutes ago, BearBoy said:
Other than those business dictaphone machines, I don't think I've ever seen a MiniDisc portable with a built in speaker. What's the sound quality like?
It's pretty feeble 😅, but I guess it's ok if you had it on your dressing table playing whilst you were getting ready to go out or something or like a radio on the bedside table
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8 minutes ago, BearBoy said:
Yeah, that's a really nice colour.
Is the casing metal or plastic?
On this one the front panel is brushed metal, and the rear is plastic
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AXIA MD | MD-im 2nd Series
The 2nd series of MD-im discs came in 6 colors, in 80 minute variants only. They were sold as single discs, 2 variations of 3 packs and a 5 pack.
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AXIA MD | J'z 2nd Series
The second series of J'z discs from Axia was available in 3 colours (green, orange and blue) in 74 min variants only. They were available as single discs, 3 packs and 5 packs.
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Victor MD | Fruity Colors
The Victor Fruity Colors series was the last series of discs put out by Victor in 2006 together with the Clear series of discs. Only available in packs of 5, they are now rather rare. They are also unique in that they are the only set of discs to contain both red and pink in the same set.
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AXIA MD | MD-CS Series
This series is believed to date from around 1998 or 1999 and came in 5 colours. Notably it is one of the few series of discs to contain a brown variation (the others being the TDK Fine "Cafe" disc and the Daiso Circle).
It was sold in 74 minutes variants, as single discs and in a variety of packs.
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* Added blue disc photos
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* Added pictures of open orange disc
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Victor MD | Victor XM-ZX3-P (Pink)
This Victor portable from November 2002 was available in Blue, Orange and Pink. The lights on the front illuminate to display the charging status in phases, and also indicate if the unit is playing in group mode. They also spin around and light up when the unit is paused or when it is switched on.
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Victor MD | Victor XM-S5-D (Citrus Orange)
This Victor portable from 2003 was available in Blue, Pink and Orange and featured a built in speaker built into the front case.
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I'm not sure if the Polywatch would work on that - it seems to work well on clear plastic / perspex, as it was designed to get scratches out of watch dials (plastic ones of course).. In theory there must be something that can be used to polish out scratches on the silver plastic
Axia MD | MD-im 1st Series
in Disc Pictorials
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* Added Purple 2 Pack and 3 Pack Mix